Autofrettage process

ABSTRACT

An autofrettage process which relates to the autofrettage of thick-walled cylinders through the cyclical application of high pressure to the internal bore of the cylinder. The invention encompasses the autofrettage of cylindrical members in cyclical pressure stages each of a few seconds to a few minutes in duration during each of which the bore of the cylinder being autofrettaged is subjected to a pressure in the range of about zero to 100,000 psi and, preferably 40,000 to 100,000 psi. Preferably, the pressurizable hydraulic fluid medium utilized for the autofrettage is ethylene glycol or hydraulic oil, or any similar fluid which will not freeze or solidify at the pressures encountered during the inventive process.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an autofrettage process and, more particularly, relates to the autofrettage of thick-walled cylinders through the cyclical application of high pressure to the internal bore of the cylinder.

In the design of thick-walled cylinders which are utilized as compressor cylinders, pump cylinders, high pressure tubing, process reactors and vessels, nuclear reactors, isostatic vessels, or gun barrels and the like, various fatigue and fracture characteristics must be taken into consideration when selecting the material and in choosing the various dimensions. Cylinders of this type which are generally subjected to sudden and frequently dramatic pressure fluctuations, such as the pressure generated in a gun barrel upon the firing of the weapon, pressure reversals in pump cylinders or in process reactors employing high-pressure piping, are prone to premature failure as the result of material fatigue or embrittlement produced by the internal pressures to which the bores of the cylinders are exposed. Usually, the material employed for such cylinders is steel; normally an alloy steel having superior strength and fatigue properties.

In order to alleviate the problems encountered in subjecting thick-walled cylinders to alternating or fluctuating, internally acting high pressures, there has been developed a process for enhancing the strength of thick-walled cylinders which are subjected to repeated internal pressures. This process is commonly referred to as "autofrettage" and involves the application of such interior pressure to the bore of the cylinder so as to plastically deform at least the inner layers of the cylinder material beyond the elastic limit or yield strength of the material and to thereby generate "negative" or residual tangential compressive stresses at the cylinder bore. These residual stresses will counteract the destructive effects of the internal cyclical or intermittent high operating pressures to which the cylinder is subjected so as to appreciably extend the service life of the cylinder. This plastic deformation of the inner bore of the cylinder beyond the elastic limit of the material so as to increase the elastic limit is a function of the strength of the material, in essence, the type of steel or alloy utilized, and of the ratio of the outer diameter to the inner diameter of the cylinder. In effect, the basic advantage obtained through the autofrettaging of thick-walled cylinders which are subjected to cyclical, intermittent or fluctuating internal high operating pressures lies in that the flexibility of the cylinders in response to these operating pressures is increased to a considerable extent to thereby impart a longer service life to the cylinders.

2. Discussion of the Prior Art

Processes for the autofrettage of thick-walled cylinders have been known for a lengthy period of time and, basically, fall into one of two major categories, as follows:

(a) The insertion of an oversized mandril or ram into the bore of the cylinder so as to exert radial pressures through forced expansion or stretching of the bore and, resultingly, of the cylinder. This rather crude mechanical process, however, frequently fails to provide the desired results in the necessary formation of residual tangential compressive stresses at the bore of the cylinder and, at times, actually leads to the destruction of the cylinder.

(b) The generation of a high pressure within the cylinder beyond the elastic limit of the material so as to cause the plastic deformation of the layers of material extending radially outwardly of the bore either partially or entirely through the wall thickness of the cylinder. For presently employed high-strength alloy steels this may necessitate an autofrettage pressure of up to about 200,000 psi. This extremely high pressure is generally disadvantageous in that it does not always produce the required residual tangential compressive stresses in the bores of the cylinders and, additionally, deforms the cylinder bore to an extent wherein the cylinder is no longer employable in its intended use, for example, in connection with its utilization as a gun barrel or piston cylinder in which the size of the cylinder bore must be maintained within narrowly prescribed bounds. Moreover, the extremely high autofrettaging pressure requires the use of large, complex and expensive pressure-generating and applicating equipment.

Thus A. E. Guy U.S. Pat. No. 1,329,762 discloses an installation for applying expanding pressure to a material or filler within the bore of a thick-walled cylinder in order to effect an autofrettage process in a single-step operation. This patent disclosure is not capable of carrying out a precise cylclical application of autofrettage pressure analgous to the present invention in which lower pressures will afford the desired cylinder stressing in a simplified and inexpensive manner.

Although F. C. Langenberg U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,553,824 and 1,553,825 illustrate and disclose multiple-step pressure applications, with the possible interposition of an annealing for softening the cylinder material, there is no mention of the only partial plastic deformation of the inner material layers of the cylinder as in the present instance, but rather the total controlled expansion of the cylinder. In addition thereto, the pressure medium employed in the Langenberg U.S. patents is water, which is not suitable at the cyclical pressures employed for the autofrettaging process of the instant invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide for an autofrettage process for thick-walled cylinders which will impart residual tangential compressive stresses to the bore of the cylinder.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide for the autofrettage of cylindrical members in cyclical pressure stages so as to limit the plastic deformation of the cylinder bore while affording the residual tangential compressive stresses.

Still another object of the present invention lies in the provision of an autofrettage process in which the cyclical pressure is imparted to the cylindrical member for short periods of time and within predetermined pressure ranges lower than the single-step pressure utilized in the prior art.

In order to attain the foregoing and other objects the invention contemplates the autofrettage of cylindrical members in cyclical pressure stages each of a few seconds to a few minutes in duration during each of which the bore of the cylinder being autofrettaged is subjected to a pressure in the range of about zero to where about 25% of the wall thickness commencing radially outwardly from the bore is plastically deformed. Preferably, the pressurizable hydraulic fluid medium utilized for the autofrettage is ethylene glycol or hydraulic oil, or any similar fluid which will not freeze or solidify at the pressures encountered during the inventive process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference may now be had to the following detailed description of an exemplary autofrettage process and apparatus pursuant to the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings; in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a longitudinal sectional view through an autofrettage apparatus for effecting the autofrettage pursuant to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows the stress-strain curve for a cylinder material consisting of AISI 4333 M₆ steel alloy;

FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view through the thick-walled cylinder in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows a partially yielded thick-walled cylinder;

FIG. 5 shows a graph plotting shear range versus cycles to failure of autofrettaged cylinder;

FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5 but illustrative of non-autofrettaged cylinder;

FIG. 7; illustrates plot of residual stresses-strains of closed-end cylinder of repeated autofrettages versus single-cycle autofrettage;

FIG. 8 illustrates stress distribution of closed-end cylinders at 18th reversal (9 cycles) to zero pressure; and

FIGS. 9 through 20 illustrates various stress-strain curves dependent upon cyclical autofrettage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now in detail to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a schematically illustrated autofrettage apparatus 10 includes a mandril 12 onto whih there is clamped a length of thick-walled cylinder C which is to be subjected to autofrettage.

The diameter 14 of the mandril 12 is smaller than the bore diameter D, of the cylinder C so as to provide for an annular space 16. The end portions 18 of mandril 12 have stepped down diameters to facilitate insertion of seals 20, backup rings 22 and sleeves 24 at each end of the cylinder C. An end plate 26 into which there is threaded the end 28 of mandril 12, and a nut 30 threaded onto mandril end 32 provide for the sealing of the interior of cylinder C.

A central longitudinal bore 34 in mandril 12 connects at one end thereof with a radial bore 36 communicating with the annular space 16. The end of bore 34 at the end 32 of the mandril connects to a source of pressure (not shown) through a threaded connection 38. The source of pressure may be a supply of a pressurizable fluid medium, such as ethylene glycol or hydraulic oil. The fluid medium is adapted to be pressurized up to slightly below the bore yield pressure for periods of 1 second up to 3 or 4 minutes, then reduced to zero end the process repeated. The pressure reduction may be held to 40,000 psi rather than zero so as to provide for an optimum pressure reversal for each pressurization stage of the autofrettage process.

FIG. 2 illustrates the stress-strain curve for AISI 4333 M6 steel, an alloy frequently employed for thick-walled cylinders subjected to high internal pressures.

As shown in FIG. 3, the thick-walled cylinder C has an outer diameter relative to the inner diameter to provide a ratio of a minimum of 1.4, or preferably 2.0. Upon the cyclical application of the autofrettage pressure, the inner bore diameter yields beyond the elastic limit so as to provide for plastic deformation through about 25% of the wall thickness, as shown in FIG. 4.

The maximum shear range versus cycles to failure of an autofrettaged cylinder of MT8-A steel alloy is shown in FIG. 5 in comparison with a non-autofrettaged cylinder as in FIG. 6, clearly illustrating the increase in the life expectancy (cycles) of the frettaged cylinder.

The improvement of the residual stress-strain (tangential compressive stresses) of the cyclically autofrettaged cylinder as compared with the single-cycle autofrettaged cylinder is set forth in FIG. 7 of the drawings, while the stress distribution at the final autofrettage cycle (9th cycle) for a closed end cylinder is set forth in FIG. 8. In effect, the invention avoids the Baushinger effect encountered in single cycle autofrettaging processes; in essence, any reverse yielding is avoided which would cause the residual stresses to be too low or not obtained at all.

An experiment of cyclical autofrettage was effected on a cylinder as set forth hereinbelow:

Computations were made using the material properties and the thick-walled cylinder dimensions listed in Table 1. The cross section of the thick-walled cylinder is shown in FIG. 4.

                  TABLE I                                                          ______________________________________                                         Material, Mechanical, Fatigue and Fracture Properties                          of AISI 4333 M6 (all units in psi, unless noted)                               ______________________________________                                         Chemical composition, weight percent                                           C     Mn     P      S    Si   Ni   Cr   Mo   Al   Cu                           ______________________________________                                         0.37  0.92   0.023  0.005                                                                               0.29 2.35 1.04 0.56 0.09 0.18                         ______________________________________                                         Heat treatment                                                                 Air melted, vacuum degassed and hot rolled                                     Quenched and tempered at 1080° F.                                       Monotonic properties                                                           Elastic modulus                                                                Tangential             29.6 × 10.sup.6                                   Axial                  29.8 × 10.sup.6                                   Compression            30.5 × 10.sup.6                                   Yield strength, 0.2% offset                                                    Tangential             152,000                                                 Axial                  149,200                                                 Compression            154,400                                                 Yield strength, 0.05% offset                                                   Tangential             148,500                                                 Ultimate strength                                                              Tangential             164,000                                                 Axial                  164,050                                                 Reduction of area, percent                                                     Tangential             46.97                                                   Axial                  58.95                                                   Elongation, percent                                                            Tangential             27.10                                                   Axial                  23.20                                                   Poisson's ratio         0.30                                                   Charpy "V" notch                                                               Axial                  60 ft-lbs                                               Hardness                                                                       Rockwell C scale       34˜37                                             Transition temperature -100° F.                                         Cyclic properties                                                              Elastic modulus                                                                Tangential             30.14 × 10.sup.6                                  Yield strength, 0.2% offset                                                    Cyclic                 104,500                                                 Incremental, block 2   101,300                                                 Incremental, block 6    85,600                                                 Fatigue strength coefficient σ'.sub.f                                                           264,490                                                 Fatigue strength exponent b                                                                           -0.0973                                                 Fatigue ductility coefficient ε'.sub.f                                                        0.826                                                   Fatigue ductility exponent c                                                                          -0.776                                                  Transition fatigue life 2N.sub.t                                                                      809 reversals                                           Fracture properties                                                            Fracture toughness K.sub.IC                                                                           89.96 ksi in                                            Threshold stress intensity (R = O) ΔK.sub.th                                                    6.90 ksi                                                Crack growth coefficient C                                                     Paris' coefficient (R = O)                                                                            1.326 × 10.sup.-11                                Forman's coefficient   5.206 × 10.sup.-9                                 Crack growth exponent m                                                        Paris' exponent         3.753                                                  Forman's exponent       3.215                                                  Thick-walled cylinder dimensions                                               Nominal inside diameter                                                                               55 mm                                                   Actual inside diameter (average)                                                                      57.91 mm                                                Nominal outside diameter                                                                              140 mm                                                  Actual outside diameter (average)                                                                     139.95 mm                                               Bore finish            5-10 R.M.S.                                             Autofrettage pressure P.sub.a                                                                          98,000                                                 Plastic-elastic boundary radius r.sub.a                                                                 1.3602                                                ______________________________________                                    

In actual computations, the thick-walled cylinder is divided into 40 rings of equal thickness, stresses and strains are computed for each pressure reversal for both closed-end and open-end conditions. The pressure was repeated between zero and 100 ksi.

Many interesting and important facts were uncovered when the programs were run and the data were analyzed.

It has been commonly accepted that once a thick-walled cylinder is autofrettaged to a certain pressure, say P_(a) ksi, it will shake down when the internal pressure P_(a) is applied again. In other words, for the same pressure as applied previously there will be no further plastic deformation in any element of the thick-walled cylinder.

This particular thick-walled cylinder which is being studied, is made of AISI 4333 M6 material. It has 148.5 ksi yield strength at 0.05% offset strain (152.0 ksi at 0.2% offset strain), and the inside and outside radii of 1.140 and 2.755 inches or 57.9 mm and 140.0 mm respectively.

The theoretical bore yield pressure (Lame's solution) is 71.06 ksi for the closed-end thick-walled cylinder and 70.71 ksi for the open-end thick-walled cylinder.

When repeated internal pressure of 100 ksi was applied to this thick-walled cylinder, it was found that the plastically deformed zone, which is an annulus, reached the outer radius at 10 cycles for the closed-end thick-walled cylinder and at 11 cycles for open-end thick-walled cylinder.

These results should not be surprising, however to those who have carefully conducted experiments on any type of thick-walled cylinders.

The experimental indication of this fact has been in existence for many years when tangential strains at the outside diameter of thick-walled cylinders were recorded as autofrettaging pressure was repeated. The tangential strain showed some increase, however small it might be, at each repeated autofrettage pressure. It is simply overlooked or no one has made any serious attempt to explain this phenomenon of "strain walking."

The computed tangential strains at the outside diameter of the thick-walled cylinder were plotted in FIG. 9 for the closed-end cylinder for sixteen pressure reversals (eight cycles) and in FIG. 10 for the open-end cylinder for fourteen pressure reversals (seven cycles) respectively.

The computed effective strains (corrected) at the bore of the thick-walled cylinder were plotted in FIG. 11 for the closed-end cylinder for sixteen reversals (eight cycles) and in FIG. 12 for the open-end cylinder for eighteen reversals (nine cycles) respectively.

FIGS. 13 and 14 shows stresses and strains across the wall thickness of the closed-end thick-walled cylinder for the first pressure reversal.

FIGS. 15 and 16 are the residual stresses and strains at second reversal or when the closed-end thick-walled cylinder is completely unloaded for the first time.

FIGS. 17, 18 and FIGS. 19, 20 are stresses and strains during the 17th and 18th reversals respectively. At 19th reversal, the closed-end thick-walled cylinder showed complete yielding to the outer radius.

Fatigue is the major cause of thick-walled cylinder failures in service. To enhance the fatigue strength, the autofrettaging process is applied to thick-walled cylinders

The drawbacks and dangers in overstraining thick-walled cylinder are that large diameter dilations result and create tolerance problems. There are practical problems in producing high autofrettage pressure (100 ksi˜200 ksi is common in industry), which might be considered as an optimum pressure. Those problems may relate to pump capacity both in pressure and in volume, to compressibility, viscosity and freezing of pressure media or fluid under high pressure, and to the failure of mechanical seals. Fluid can no longer be considered incompressible under high pressure (20%˜30% compressibility it not uncommon) and its viscosity rapidly increases exponentially with pressure creating various mechanical problems such as seal failures, plunger failures (for such high pressure, sintered tungsten carbide is the only practical, commercially available material), check valve failures, line ruptures and so on.

One of the important findings of this research is the new process in autofrettage, which does not require higher autofrettage pressure to introduce high residual compressive stresses at the bore if the thick-walled cylinder is made of a cyclically softening alloy steel. The amount of diametral dilation is one order of magnitude smaller than achieved by traditional autofrettage methods for the same residual compressive stresses.

Thick-walled cylinders are commonly made of high strength alloy steels, which, in general, show cyclic softening. The high strength material is used even at the expense of fracture toughness in an attempt to contain high and pulsating pressure.

In FIG. 7 the residual tangential stresses, when pressure is cycled between zero and 100 ksi, are plotted together with the same residuals introduced by higher pressures but cycled only once. Only three cycles of 100 ksi produce higher residual compressive stresses than one cycle of 160 ksi pressure.

At 160 ksi pressure, 95% of the wall is yielded, however, at three cycles of 100 ksi, only 17.5% of the wall has been plastically strained. It was also found that the pressure need not be cycled between zero and 100 ksi but instead cycling between 40 ksi and 100 ksi for three cycles produced the same result. This is very important because the time and cost and problems associated with high pressure may be greatly reduced in cycling between 40 ksi and 100 ksi compared to cycling between zero and 100 ksi.

An important advantage obtained by the invention lies in the fact that the actual deformation of the cylinder bore at cyclical autofrettage is a full magnitude less, in essence is only 10%, of the yield of the cylinder bore at a single-cycle autofrettage. This provides for improved accuracy of the cylinder bore, which is extremely important for gun barrels and pump cylinders.

In summation, the major advantages of the invention in comparison with the conventional single-cycle process are:

1. It requires relatively lower pressure to autofrettage thick-walled cylinders.

2. The cost to autofrettage thick-walled cylinders will be less because of lower pressure used.

3. Much higher residual tangential stresses will be introduced at the bore of thick-walled cylinders than the conventional method.

4. The higher residual tangential stress at the bore will dramatically increase the fatigue life of thick-walled cylinders.

5. The increase of the bore diameter of thick-walled cylinders will be less than one tenth of that due to the conventional autofrettage method. The dimensional control is very critical in some applications such as pump cylinders and gun barrels. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A process of subjecting a generally thickwalled, hollow cylindrical member to autofrettage including sealing the inner bore of said cylindrical member, and pressurizing said inner bore; comprising the steps of:a. imparting a predetermined pressure to the entire length of said inner bore for a period of time; and b. cyclically repeating the application of the same pressure so as to plastically deform the inner bore of said cylindrical member and produce residual tangential compressive stresses in said bore.
 2. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cyclical pressures extend up to where about 25% of the wall thickness commensing from the bore is penetrated by said plastic deformation.
 3. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cyclical pressures are in the range of between slightly below the bore yield pressure and the pressure which causes 25% of the well to plastically deform.
 4. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cyclical pressures are applied at least three times to said cylindrical member.
 5. A process as claimed in claim 1, said cylindrical member being a closed-end cylinder, said cyclical pressures being applied for at least eight cycles consisting of sixteen pressure reversals.
 6. A process as claimed in claim 1, said cylindrical member being an open-ended cylinder, said cyclical pressures being applied for at least nine cycles consisting of eighteen pressure reversals.
 7. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plastic deformation produces residual tangential compressive stresses extending from said inner bore radially outwardly for about 25% of the thickness of the cylindrical member.
 8. A process as claimed in claim 1, or 2 or 5 or 6 wherein said cylindrical member being autofrettaged is formed of a high-strength alloy steel.
 9. A process as claimed in claim 8, wherein said alloy steel is AISI 4333 M6 steel.
 10. A process as claimed in claim 8, wherein said alloy steel is AISI 4140 steel.
 11. A process as claimed in claim 1, or 2 or 5 or 6 wherein said inner bore is pressurized by a hydraulic fluid.
 12. A process as claimed in claim 11, wherein said hydraulic fluid medium is ethylene glycol.
 13. A process as claimed in claim 11, wherein said hydraulic fluid medium is hydraulic oil.
 14. A process as claimed in claim 8, wherein said predetermined pressure extends up to about 100,000 psi.
 15. A process of subjecting a hollow metal cylindrical member to autofrettage wherein the cylinder is sealed and pressure is applied to the inner bore of said cylinder, said process comprising:(a) establishing a bore yield pressure for each cylindrical configuration and metallic composition to be autofrettaged, said bore yield pressure being the pressure at which plastic deformation first occurs on the inner wall of the bore; (b) establishing a maximum yield pressure for each cylindrical configuration and metallic composition to be autofrettaged, said maximum yield pressure being the pressure at which the cylinder wall is overstrained; (c) selecting an autofrettage pressure from a range of pressures, said range beginning at said bore yield pressure and extending to twice said bore yield pressure, said selected autofrettage pressure being less than said maximum yield pressure; (d) applying said autofrettage pressure to said inner bore to cause plastic deformation of the inner wall of said bore; (e) cyclically repeating the application of said selected autofrettage pressure to further increase the residual tangential compressive stress in said bore with each application of said selected autofrettage pressure; (f) terminating the cyclic repetition of said autofrettage pressure before an area of plastic penetration reaches the outer walls of said cylinder; whereby the residual tangential compressive stress generated by said cyclic repetition are greater than the residual compressive stress that may be generated by a single application of autofrettage pressure at any pressure level.
 16. A process as claimed in claim 1 wherein said process is performed on a closed end cylinder, and said cylindrical pressures are applied for at least eight cycles.
 17. A process as claimed in claim 16 wherein said process is performed on an open ended cylinder, and said cyclic pressures are applied for at least eight cycles.
 18. A process as claimed in claim 15 or 16 or 17 wherein said cylindrical member is first formed from a high-strength alloy steel.
 19. A process as claimed in claim 18 wherein the high-strength alloy is selected from the group of AISI 4140, MT8A, and 433M6 steels.
 20. A process as claimed in claim 19 wherein the preselected autofrettage pressure is 100 ksi.
 21. A process as claimed in claim 19 wherein said pressurization is applied for a predetermined period of time, said time period selected from the range of one second to four minutes.
 22. A process as claimed in claim 15 or 16 or 17 wherein said cyclic application of pressure is limited to cycles between said preselected autofrettage pressure and a preselected minimum pressure, said preselected minimum pressure being below the bore yield pressure but greater than 50 percent of the bore yield pressure.
 23. A process as claimed in claims 15 or 16 or 17 wherein the cycles of pressurization are repeated until 25 percent of the wall thickness is penetrated by said plastic deformation.
 24. A process of subjecting a hollow cylindrical member to autofrettage which includes sealing the inner bore of the cylindrical member and pressurizing said inner bore, said process comprising:(a) establishing a bore yield pressure for the cylindrical material and configuration; (b) subjecting the inner walls of said bore to a predetermined autofrettage pressure in excess of said bore yield pressure to plastically deform the inner bore of said cylinder; (c) cyclically varying the pressure between said predetermined autofrettage pressure and a predetermined minimum pressure, said minimum pressure being lower than the bore yield pressure, but greater than 50 percent of the bore yield pressure; (d) selecting a predetermined pressure and number of cycles to increase the residual tangential compressive stress of the cylinder beyond that of a single cycle autofrettage; (e) terminating said cyclic variation before an area of plastic penetration reaches the outer wall of said cylinder.
 25. A process as claimed in claim 24 wherein said process is performed on a closed end cylinder, and said cyclic pressures are applied for at least eight cycles.
 26. A process as claimed in claim 24 wherein said process is performed on an open ended cylinder, and said cyclic pressures are applied for at least eight cycles.
 27. A process as claimed in claim 24, or 25 or 26 wherein said cylindrical member is first formed from a high-strength alloy steel.
 28. A process as claimed in claim 19 wherein the high-strength alloy is selected from the group of AISI 4140, MT8A and 433M6 steels.
 29. A process as claimed in claim 27 wherein the preselected autofrettage pressure is 100 ksi. 